Jourova said that Europe had made “substantial progress” in removing “illegal hate speech” through cooperation with technology firms.

Her visit was billed as part of the EU’s cooperation with Israel aimed at “combating racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism.”

Her Israeli host, foreign ministry director general Yuval Rotem stated, “Israel believes that the IT industry needs to take on greater responsibility in the proactive effort to detect hate speech online.”

Target is criticism of Israel

But while genuinely combating hate speech might be laudable, the evidence is that this initiative is more about trying to suppress criticism of Israel.

It contains the uncontroversial statement that anti-Semitism “is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews,” and which may be manifested through rhetorical or physical attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions.

But the definition is flanked by an explanatory memorandum, citing examples that muddy the waters between anti-Semitism – bigotry against Jews – on the one hand, and criticism of Israel and its state ideology Zionism, on the other.

Those examples include “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”

“Bewilderingly imprecise”

“The definition deliberately elides the difference between criticizing Jews for imagined negative characteristics, and criticizing Israel for very real negative behaviors,” the Jewish-led activist group Free Speech on Israel wrote to European Parliament lawmakers in March. This is no accident. “The construction of a defensive shield against advocacy by and on behalf of Palestinians is the specific purpose that the definition was created for,” Free Speech on Israel added.

David Feldman, director of the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism at Birkbeck, University of London, has called the definition “bewilderingly imprecise” and the accompanying examples dangerous because they may “place the onus on Israel’s critics to demonstrate they are not anti-Semitic.”

In a letter to members of the US Congress last December, Stern warned that giving the definition legal status would be “unconstitutional and unwise.”

Stern highlighted the difficulty with legislating against political opinions, asking, “If denying the right of Israel to exist is enshrined as anti-Semitism by law, would Congress then pass parallel legislation defining opposition to a Palestinian state as anti-Palestinianism?”

Stern stated that the original definition he had drafted “was never intended to be used to limit speech … it was written for European data collectors to have a guideline for what to include and what to exclude in reports.”

Yet the EU is now signalling that it plans to use the definition to train police, who will presumably use it to monitor and punish citizens’ utterances.

Ignoring Israeli incitement

Israel and its supporters have long pressured social media companies, especially Facebook, to crack down on Palestinians, and the company has in the past blocked the accounts of Palestinian journalists.

Shaked’s posting declared that “the entire Palestinian people is the enemy” and justified its destruction, “including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure.”

The posting also called for the slaughter of Palestinian mothers who give birth to “little snakes.”

Comments

"....denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination....."
This phrase is used by israel & its surrogates ad nauseam, and israel has managed to get the rest of the world, bar those critical of the NaZionist state, to ignore the Palestinian people's right to self-determination. That right is never ever mentioned in any official communication, except in passing in a "oh yeah, by the way" kind of remark.

It is sickening that the EU/Mogherini has refused to respond to Electronic Intifada's asking the European Union External Action Service to comment on the situation in Gaza and to explain what, if anything, it is doing to pressure Israel to reverse the electricity cuts.

Instead, the EU deepening its cooperation with the Apartheid state, even though South Africa was boycotted for its apartheid.

That a European official would pose for photos with a relaxed and smiling Ayelet Shaked illustrates how far EU policy has strayed from basic principles of international law. Threats of arrest aimed at dissidents who criticise Israel offer further evidence of a disturbing affinity between the apartheid regime and European Union officialdom. We must continue to speak out and actively oppose Zionist influence. Support for the BDS movement remains a vital tool in the fight for Palestinian rights, as well as our own.

"Justice minister" lol . No criticism of Israel is ever allowed, even though it is political decisions, not religion or race, that are causing the consequences (for Palestinians and Syrians as well as others) of Israeli violence and influence.

An article by Jonathan Cook , June 24th in his blog is worth reading:
"How Israel gains from Egypt-Saudi-Arabia Red Sea Islands deal"